Are You Talking Too Fast?

Just as having to wolf down food doesn't allow time for complete digestion and deprives the eater of the food's nourishment, having to take in too much talk at too fast a rate may cause some "verbal indigestion" with a listener.

Some reasons people talk too fast

1. Anxiety. You can observe this in novice public speakers, for example. When they are nervous, they'll often tend to talk faster.

2. Regionalism. For example, New Yorkers speak at a rate of about 240 words per minute, while Midwesterners speak at a rate of about 170 words per minute. Folks in the mid-Atlantic states and Southerners speak somewhat more slowly (120-140 WPM) than those in Mid-America.

3. Socialization. If you are raised in a big family that competes for "air time," you may try to get your thoughts across in a hurry to avoid being interrupted or stopped.

1. Bi-polar disorder. Sufferers tend to talk too fast and about many different things at once. (Treatment of this condition requires medical intervention with medication.)

Ideally, when talking, you will adjust your speech rate to the listeners. For example, it will often be appropriate to slow down when talking to someone who is not a native speaker of your language. (Last summer I befriended two university students from Poland, and I consciously slowed down my speaking by about 15% and avoided using difficult words.) Also, when parenting or teaching young people, you may also seek to model an appropriate rate of speech.

How to check your speech rate

You can check your rate of speech by reading aloud a piece from a newspaper. Count out 180 words from an article and record it, then time what you have recorded. If you read it in about one minute, you are talking at a "general American" rate. If you read it in 45 seconds, you are probably talking too fast. (Or you can also ask a few friends, "Do I sometimes talk too fast?")

I have found that many fast talkers are not aware of their habit, and therefore they see no benefits in changing.

If you talk too fast, here are some remedies:

1. Use pauses to punctuate your talking and also to slow you down. Pausing between phrases can be helpful to the listener.

2. If your enunciation is impaired by talking too fast, you can adapt the method used by the Greek orator Demosthenes, who overcame a nervous stammer by speaking with pebbles in his mouth. You can practice privately with a pen horizontally in your mouth (instead of pebbles). Doing so will train you to slow down and enunciate more clearly.

3. Look paople in the eye when you're talking. You'll get feedback from the listener(s) if you're being understood. Having this connection helps to pace your rate of speaking.

4. Consciously breathe more often to feel calmer and energize your voice.

5. Join a Toastmasters Club in your town and you'll get lots of coaching support from fellow members that will help you adjust your rate if too fast or too slow.

Speaking at a moderate rate is not only more intelligible to listeners; it can also communicate self confidence and authority so that you have more influenced with your ideas.

Loren Ekroth © 2011, All rights reserved

Loren Ekroth, Ph.D. is a specialist in human communication and a national expert on conversation for business and social life. His articles and programs strengthen critical communication skills for business and professional people. Contact Loren at Loren@conversation-matters.com. Check out a wealth of valuable resources and articles at http://www.conversation-matters.com and subscribe to his weekly free Better Conversations ezine (which also entitles you to two very informative reports).

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